A liberal gossip-monger and blogger took issue with my handling of last week’s post on the Dolnick family’s nepotism scandal at the New York Times. He claimed that the Dolnicks’ abuse of power and debasement of journalistic ethics had nothing to do with the pernicious sanctimony and moral degeneracy so typical of the liberal elite.

Never one to shy away from a fight, I responded with my own comments to his blog posts on the subject, correcting his erroneous interpretation events as well as his grossly distorted caricature of my views and opinions.

When I beg to differ, I do so vehemently. We engaged in a spirited exchange. Charge and counter-charge ensued, but with my superior command of the facts and evidence I soon bested my foe. You can follow our conversation here.

I want to apologize for a planned new venture that went off track and for any cause we may have given you to doubt our independence and integrity. A flier distributed last week suggested that we were selling access to power brokers in Washington through dinners that were to take place at my home.

While Weymouth’s apology is commendable, her contention, later in the open letter, that the plan did not reflect what she “had in mind” and, furthermore, that it did not have her approval seems difficult to believe. Can she possibly be so completely negligent in the administration of her own business that a consultant hired by her specifically to dream up unconventional income-raising techniques would launch such a venture without ever running it past her? And if he did do something so outrageous and manifestly stupid, why hasn’t he yet been fired?

In reality, isn’t Weymouth just apologizing, as the Onion might put it, for having been caught telling the truth–for having made painfully clear what everyone already ought to know about the way influence and power really function in Washington?

Mike Allen at Politico reports that the Washington Post has launched a pay-for-play scheme for health care lobbyists seeking favorable treatment in the paper’s pages and access to the Post’s many inside contacts among the Obama cabal. Even ethically challenged Washington lobbyists are revolted:

For $25,000 to $250,000, The Washington Post is offering lobbyists and association executives off-the-record, nonconfrontational access to “those powerful few” — Obama administration officials, members of Congress, and the paper’s own reporters and editors.

The astonishing offer is detailed in a flier circulated Wednesday to a health care lobbyist, who provided it to a reporter because the lobbyist said he feels it’s a conflict for the paper to charge for access to, as the flier says, its “health care reporting and editorial staff.”

The offer — which essentially turns a news organization into a facilitator for private lobbyist-official encounters — is a new sign of the lengths to which news organizations will go to find revenue at a time when most newspapers are struggling for survival.

If this is what the Post needs to do to survive, it should do America a favor and die.